Lecture 3

Accessing DS Branch Objects in

Mechanical 14. 5 Release

1 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Content

• Accessing Branch object and its children

• Specifying parameters in “Details View”
• Summary

2 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Tree – Branch – Project -- Model

DS.Tree.FirstActiveBranch
DS.Tree

DS.Tree
DS.Tree.Branches
DS.Tree.Branches(1) == DS.Tree.FirstActiveBranch

DS.Tree.Projects
DS.Tree.Projects(1) == DS.Tree.FirstActiveBranch.Project

DS.Tree.FirstActiveBranch.Project.Models(1)

3 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Branch provide access to objects
Branch

Project
Model

PrototypeGroup
CoordinateSystemGroup
MeshControlGroup
ComponentGroup
Environment
AnalysisSettings
Load
AnswerSet
4 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Result
Release 14.5
 Children of Branch Object
branchObj = DS.Tree.FirstActiveBranch
branchObj.Project

branchObj.Model ==
branchObj.Project.Models(1)

branchObj.PrototypeGroup

branchObj.MeshControlGroup
branchObj (model
with current object)
branchObj.ComponentGroup

branchObj.Environment

branchObj.AnswerSet

Branch object provides direct access to other objects

5 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 PrototypeGroup
• Is the collection point for
Prototypes
• It also provides metadata for
the source of the attached
geometry file
• Allows accessing all bodies
and their properties
– Bodies are accessed using “Item”
property
– Starts at 1 (not 0)
– Some properties
• MaterialName
• Volume
• Mass
• SolidSurfaceArea
• CADParameters
• …
6 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5
 MeshControlGroup
• A collection point for
MeshControls applied to the
attached geometry
• Also defines default
meshing settings for parts
that do not have specific
controls assigned
• Allows accessing all mesh
controls and their properties
– Controls are accessed using
“Item” property
– Starts at 1 (not 0)

7 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 ComponentGroup
• A collection point for Named
Selections applied to the
attached geometry
• Allows accessing all Named
Selections and their
properties
• Components are accessed
using “Item” property
– Starts at 1 (not 0)

8 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Environment
• Collection point for loading conditions on
the attached geometry
• Typical methods:
– AddLoad(SM,id_loadType)
• For loads and supports
• id_LoadType is defined in DSConstants.js
– AddCondition(id_CondType)
• For accelerations and rotational speed
• id_CondType is defined in DSConstants.js
Path for DSConstants.js is ~\DSPages\scripts
• Typical properties:
– Name
– AnalysisSettings.NumberOfSteps
– …

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 AnswerSet

• Collection point for user selected results

• Typical methods:
– AddResult(SM,id_ResType)
• id_ResType is defined in DSConstants.js
Path for DSConstants.js is ~\DSPages\scripts

• Typical properties:
– Name
– Results
• Results are accessed using “Item”
property
– Starts at 1 (not 0)
– …

10 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Anatomy of a Typical Script

Most of the scripts you will write will probably share this structure:
• Variable initialization
• Main part of the code
• Functions
• Comments wherever needed (highly recommended!)

Update the tree structure when you add entities through scripting
• DS.Script.fillTree();

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 Specifying parameters in Details pane (1)
• Parameters (or Items) in “Details View” can be specified through “List View (lv)”
object
– When running a script in Mechanical, ListView object is directly accessible
– When using SendCommand from WB Python script, the ListView object is not
accessible directly. It should be defined as:
• ListView = DS.Script.lv

• Below example shows procedure for accessing various parameters of “Force” and
specifying appropriate values/options

• DS.Script. doInsertEnvironmentForce(); // command for adding new Force load

ListView.ActivateItem("Scoping Method");
ListView.ItemValue = "Named Selection";

ListView.ActivateItem("Named Selection");
ListView.ItemValue = “face";
12 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5
 Specifying parameters in Details pane (2)
DS.Script.lv.ActivateItem(“Define By");
DS.Script.lv.ItemValue = “Components";

DS.Script.lv.ActivateItem(“Coordinate System");
DS.Script.lv.ItemValue = " Global Coordinate System ";

DS.Script.lv.ActivateItem(“X Component");
DS.Script.lv.ItemValue = “1”;

DS.Script.lv.ActivateItem(“Y Component");
DS.Script.lv.ItemValue = “1";

DS.Script.lv.ActivateItem(“Z Component");
DS.Script.lv.ItemValue = “1”;

DS.Script.lv.ActivateItem(“Suppressed");
DS.Script.lv.ItemValue = “No”;

DS.Script.fillTree();

! One could use: ListView in place of DS.Script.lv

13 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5
 Specifying parameters in Details pane (3)

• The “ListView” process described in previous slides uses

actual “strings” as appeared in Details View.
– In other words, this process becomes Language
dependent
– In order to remove this dependency, pass “string ID”
instead of actual string
– A method DS.Script.localString() can be used to get
the desired string in the local language

• Consider the same Force load example

• Instead of using “Scoping Method” string, lets find the ID
of this string and pass it
– Go to ~DSPages\Language\en-us\xml
– Find the ID_** for Menu string “Scoping Method” and
“Named Selection” from dsstringtable.xml

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 Specifying parameters in Details pane (4)
You will get the string “Scoping Method” at
multiple locations. Select the one that is most
reasonable
In this case it is: ID_GeometryDefineBy

For “Named Selection” it is: ID_NamedSelection

15 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Specifying parameters in Details pane (5)

Commands to activate “Scoping Method” item

var scpMtd = DS.Script.localString("ID_GeometryDefineBy");
ListView.ActivateItem(scpMtd);

And specify the value as “Named Selection”

var scpVal = DS.Script.localString("ID_NamedSelection");
ListView. ItemValue(scpVal);

Similarly, activate and specify the Named Selection item

ListView.ActivateItem(scpVal);
ListView.ItemValue(“face”);

16 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5

 Summary

This presentation highlighted following points:

• How to access branch objects of Tree (Geometry, mesh controls,
Named Selections, etc.)
• How to specify parameters in the Details view

17 © 2011 ANSYS, Inc. November 29, 2012 Release 14.5